


Summer Afternoons

by hikarimew



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Ice Cream, Sora and Vanitas Are Siblings (Kingdom Hearts), Summer Vacation, Teenage Dorks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22577950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikarimew/pseuds/hikarimew
Summary: Ven wanted to be doing things other than summer homework with the local jerk, Vanitas.
Relationships: Vanitas & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	Summer Afternoons

**Author's Note:**

> y'ever think about how vanitas, local abomination, goes against all laws of nature, spreads the physical form of all his negative emotions, has a line of unversed who's sole purpose is making ice cream? it's wild

There were several other ways Ven wanted to spend one of his precious days of summer vacation. Going to the beach, catching up with Terra and Aqua, staying up all night with his telescope, or even just taking his baby brother to the park. So many good things, but instead, he had been besieged by the terror of summer homework.

Couldn't go to Terra and Aqua for that, they were in a higher grade. Lea and Isa were from a different school entirely. And to top it all off, the last time he'd come to pick up Roxas from a playdate with Sora, he'd made the mistake of mentioning he hadn't started on summer homework yet, and with a few simple words, Sora's mom tossed him in the grave he'd been digging for himself by ignoring the assignments as long as he had:  _ Vanitas hasn’t started his yet, too! Why don’t you boys work on it together? _

It was really hard to say no to a nice lady who always made sure the cabinets had his favorite cookies when she knew he was going to stop by, even for just a second. So here he was, summer sun laughing down at him, knocking on the sea air worn door, backpack slung over his shoulder. He could do this. After all, Vanitas was probably just going to ignore him and he'd work on his stuff alone. That was definitely what would happen. Hope was always last to die.

Sora's mom swung the door open on the second knock, giving Ven a quick hug before stepping past him, heading onto the street. "I need to stop by the pharmacy really quick," she explained, "you don't mind watching Sora for a few minutes, right? Thanks!" and she was already racing down the street, leaving Ven standing alone in the open doorway.

He bit back a laugh. He would be the last person to blame her for not trusting Vanitas with a small child and preferring to wait for a guest to come over and do it, instead.

He finished letting himself in, making sure the door was shut properly behind him and setting his bag down. Sora was on the couch, looking miserable. The bag full of empty plastic containers, the smell of ice cream, and the conveniently placed bucket told him all he needed to know. The little boy lifted his arms up and Ven happily gave him the hug he asked for. Sora was much better company than Vanitas.

Speak of the devil, Ven could hear his music coming from the kitchen, which was odd. Usually the screeching guitars and swelling violins would be confined to his room, not anywhere on the first floor, even when he did occasionally leave his room to grab a bite. Ven knew he’d have to face the source of the music sooner or later, so he carefully removed Sora’s arms from around him.

“Sorry, buddy,” he said softly, “but I need to talk to your brother a bit, okay?”   
  
Sora’s eyes widened almost comically at that, grabbing onto Ven’s shirt as he tried to get up.

“You can’t…! The ice-cream… It’s a trap, Ven!” Sora warned dramatically as Ven detached himself from Sora, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.   
  
“Don’t worry about me, Sora, I can handle Vanitas!” he reassured, leaving the queasy looking boy (looks like him almost jumping onto Ven hadn’t helped) behind him as he headed into the kitchen, not knowing what to expect. After all, even it being Vanitas, poisoning his brother was out of character for him. He hoped.

The kitchen in Sora’s house was old school, no open concept, and Ven couldn’t see much from the living room. The kitchen door only provided him the view of Vanitas’ unfairly broad back (seriously, Ven knew the guy since forever, he did  _ not _ work out enough to earn a build like that). The music kept playing from the small speaker Vanitas had on top of a counter.

“Poisoning your brother is a bit much, isn’t it?” Ven asked, and Vanitas only turned around to acknowledge his presence. With all the noise, he should’ve been surprised, but by now Ven had learned Vanitas had some weird sixth sense about where he was.

Ven was the one surprised. The kitchen smelled of milk and vanilla, most of it coming from the bowl Vanitas was whisking in his arms. He thought Vanitas couldn't do anything in a kitchen but eat.

"That brat made himself sick," Vanitas scoffed, turning back around to face the kitchen counter and trying to end the conversation. Peeking over him, Ven realized he was watching a concert on his tablet while he kept whisking. Concerts were fun, and something he'd like going to on his vacation, if it wasn't for that awful little thing.

"So, summer homework--"

"I'm busy."

"No, you're not," and Ven had checked with Vanitas' mom before scheduling this, to make absolutely sure he wouldn't have to waste precious summer hours on a day Vanitas was unavailable.

“I am until this needs to go in the freezer again, so if you want to be useful while you wait, you can help clean out the freezer, Ventus,” Vanitas didn’t even bother to look at him while he talked, that bastard, but fine. Two could play at that game. Ven gave Vanitas his best cold shoulder as he opened the freezer door and was nearly brained by a falling over pot of ice cream.

Yelping, he managed to grab it before it hit the floor, finally looking inside the freezer properly. It looked just about ready to explode from how full it was, stacked top to bottom with transparent, unlabeled pots of ice-cream. Some of them had flavors scribbled in red marker on the side, but most were entirely blank.

There was probably enough ice-cream in there to last the whole summer, and Vanitas was still making more. No wonder Sora got sick, having these many sweets around. Ven would have done the exact same thing, and well, no time to start like the present. If he was gonna have Vanitas ignoring him, he’d at least do so while mocking his culinary skills.

He grabbed one that had ‘apple’ in it, written in Vanitas’ recognizable, angular scrawl and with no other distinguishable features, and one of Sora’s collectable Verum Rex spoons because they were adorable and one of his favourite parts of coming over (he picked Stella), taking the first bite of the ice-cream.

“Holy _ shit _ this is the best ice-cream I’ve ever had,” he hadn’t meant to compliment Vanitas, but it was impossible not to. It was silky and smooth, the apple and honey mixing perfectly with the vanilla base, melting in his mouth. He had no idea how long it had been in the freezer, but it was still incredibly fluffy and a joy to dig into, not being too hard and risking cracking a spoon on it. Ven was a hundred percent ready to just cancel the homework plans and join Sora on the couch in eating until he couldn’t move, but Vanitas didn’t take the compliment well, flicking the whisk at him and covering Ven in half frozen ice-cream.

“Don’t fucking swear, Ventus,” Vanitas reprimanded him, “if Sora hears you and repeats that language, it’s gonna be my ass on the line.”

“No way, Sora’s a good kid, he’d be honest about who he’d heard it from,” Actually, nevermind, the vanilla Vanitas had been making was delicious, and Ven happily grabbed the flecks on his face to eat.

“Yeah, and would anyone believe it was you, and not me?”

Point.

“Seriously, you could make a killing selling these,” Ven managed to say between shoveling more ice-cream in his face, “you’d even give Scrooge a run for his money.”

“And have his anger-issues-incarnate nephew come after me for destroying his uncle’s ice cream empire and his inheritance? No thanks.”

“Donald’s not that bad,” Especially after his nephews moved in with him. Ven tried getting another bite of ice-cream in while defending the guy, but to his surprise, he’d already eaten the entire pot. Wow, no wonder Sora got sick from eating too much and tried to warn him--

Right, Sora. Ven was asked to watch Sora. Which he couldn't do while digging out more ice-cream from the fridge for himself (a pale yellow one this time, no flavour written on the container), so he dropped off the empty one in the sink before heading over to the kitchen door, to make sure Sora was still on the couch, watching TV.

Sora was not there.

Oh no.

Ven started breathing faster, first dashing to the front door. Locked, no key in reachable places, so okay, Sora couldn't have left the house while he had been distracted with stupid Vanitas and his stupid ice-cream (that he was still holding on to), so, okay, Sora was probably still feeling sick, he must've gone to the bathroom, or

No matter what Vanitas said about that day, Ven did not  _ shriek _ . He was merely startled when he felt something tugging on his shirt. He did not jump into the air in surprise or anything. Definitely not.

Thankfully it was both Sora the one tugging on his shirt  _ and _ he didn't drop his new ice-cream (which turned out to be a mix of pineapple and mint that felt like diving into the ocean on a hot summer day; it was freshness incarnate). Once he realized he had Ven's attention, Sora let go of his shirt, just starting up with his big blue eyes.

"Ven… Can you tell Vanitas to make Sea Salt next?"

"Of course I can, Sora!"

"He can't, and I won't."

It was so unfair that he couldn't sneak up on Vanitas when the other could and would just show up behind him without warning.

The bowl was gone from his arms, replaced with a half dozen containers of ice-cream he was placing on the coffee table, before lying down and taking up most of the couch by himself.

“What, can’t make Sea Salt Ice-Cream?” it wasn’t even that hard, Ven tried making it at home once after Lea got him and everyone else in his house addicted to the stuff.

“More like since after  _ someone’s _ brother introduced it to Sora he’s refused to let Mom buy any other flavours and I had to take matters into my own hands.”

Ven moved Vanitas’ legs off the couch so he could at least sit down with his treat, Sora clambering over them with the lack of care only a five year old could have. Vanitas didn't even seem to notice, too used to the energetic kid, grabbing the remote and scrolling through a few channels until he landed on a cheesy horror movie.

"So, seriously, homework-" Ven was interrupted again, this time by Vanitas wagging his spoon at his face.

"Who said I was free? The ice-cream still needs to be frozen and whisked another time or two before it's  _ really _ done," and he grinned, acid gold eyes promising lazing around and eating sweets until he couldn't move, fighting the heat with a shitty movie that'd send chills down his spine, "so what are you going to do, Ventus?"

As if Ven ever stood a chance against such temptation.

"Guess I'll just have to wait for you to finish, then."

On a summer afternoon like this, there were worse places to be.


End file.
